Review-The Amazing Bubble Man-Lunchbox Productions
12-9-12
The Amazing Bubble Man is a kid's show so I feel it's only appropriate to open this article with quotes from the kids that watched the show this afternoon with me. Kids are also the best critics as they have no filters.
"I like the show because the man is very funny."- Michael, age 6
"The bubbles look like rainbows!"- Julie, age 5
"This show is too long... I'm sleepy!"- Little girl in pink jacket
"If you're so amazing why do you keep breaking them?" - Akari (age unknown)
"You're good at the blow jobs."- Isaac (refering to how Mr. Pearl is good at blowing bubbles...)
"I am an alien!!!!!"- Kid in the blue shirt
I love going to kids' shows because I am basically a big kid at heart. I was drawn to The Amazing Bubble Man at first because I had heard he had sold out the Edinburgh festival for the past five years – truly amazing! Playing in the Drama Theatre at the HKAPA in Wanchai, the show is basically a showcase of all kinds of bubbles and the science of how they're made. If your kid loves science this is a good show for them as Mr. Pearl has a bit of Bill Nye's essence in him. (The science guy, not the makeup designer...)
The Good
The show is a lot of fun and is very audience inter-active. Kids really love being able to hop on stage to play with the bubbles and Mr. Pearl. This is a great show to bring high energy kids to. They get to learn actively about the science of how bubbles work.
Mr. Pearl is very good teacher, which is a good thing despite the outburst of one of the small children in the audience. He has a very good charisma about him when explaining how things work. He also works well with his young assistants on stage. Working with small kids is not always the easiest thing, so I give him a lot of credit for working well under unforseen circumstances.
I want to give a special shout out to my audience neighbor Akari. I know she wasn't pleased when the bubbles were popped during the tricks. Sometimes bubbles pop. Her comments when the tricks didn't work out were hilarious during the show. And I was very happy to be sitting behind her and her mom during the show. If you go see this show - hope that you are around a really vocal kid. The audience reactions are what make this show work.
The Bad
‘No photos’ is a standard house rule and I totally understand why that’s so for most kinds of performance - but when a show is this inter-active it seems a shame not to let parents take non-flash photos of their kids participating on stage. No-one was selling photos of the audience participation in the lobby so I see no immediate conflict of interest. The parental photos would be sure to go on facebook and create further positive publicity for this production.
Overall
I thought the show was really enjoyable. The kids in the audience really loved it, popped bubbles and all. I think they learned something which is important when choosing a production to take your family to. I do think the tickets are expensive. (595-395). There is no student discount for this production. But when I asked the parents who took their kids to see the production this afternoon they said it was money well spent. The kids enjoyed themselves and the parents felt it was a show they could take kids of all ages to.
Comments
Super mom
I took my kids to this show and they loved it but it was WAY to expensive. Also did not like that he read his notes on stage. Super sloppy
13 September 2012